The world after September 11

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Syed Fattahul Alim
The world is observing the 7th anniversary of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre, Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Had the disaster taken place in any of the major cities of a nation less important than those of the world's lone superpower, the fallouts of the event would carry far less global significance than it has in actual practice has done. But the tragedy did take place in a country that controls the world in every sense of the term. So the consequence of the attack on the American soil by an unknown enemy generated a response that was superpower-like. The nine-eleven was followed by the US's wrathful attack on Afghanistan, one of the most backward and already war-torn third world countries on earth. Why Afghanistan? Because its Islamist Taleban government was thought to be giving shelter to the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. So was the display of awesome power of the mightiest nation on earth. The new discourse, 'the war on terror' was the outgrowth of the 9/11 attack on America. The quintessence of the new discourse was to fight the invisible enemy without border at every conceivable place on earth. Many old scores were also settled on the pretext of the war on terror. Iraq was attacked to dislodge the old enemy Saddam Hussein from power. The Palestine was left to the mercy of Israel. The psychological war against Iran was also launched as the country was demonstrating its nuclear ambition.
Meanwhile, the initiator of the new global discourse has about completed his two terms in office. Now the big question is what will happen to the war on terror in the post-Bush era? It may appear that the 9/11 has only stoked up the fire of hatred and xenophobic hysteria among the global population. That the attack on the World Trade Centre caused to generate hatred of one group of people against another, especially in the West, is to some extent true. But it had also its silver linings. The September 11 of 2001, in some cases, changed the very outlooks of individuals and groups towards life. In those cases, hate was replaced by more compassion, understanding and love among people belonging to different groups, faiths and communities.
CS monitor in an article to commemorate the day writes: On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, millions of Americans - and others around the world - were astonished, horrified, frightened, and grieved over a world that had seemingly changed in a matter of minutes. One moment, people were going about their day, the next moment the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked and thousands of people had been killed, including those on Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
In many ways, the world did change that day, and some of those changes are hard to assess because they're still unfolding. A British jury's decision earlier this week regarding a subsequent plot to attack airliners brought home the impact of terrorist threats on air travel and the complexities it has introduced. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are additional examples of how 9/11 has touched people's lives.
But there are other changes, too. One is the somewhat fractious unity that has developed as nations work together to resist terrorist threats. This unity has helped cool off some of the rhetoric about Iranian nuclear activities and has provided a unified response to the Russia-Georgia standoff. New opportunities to do good by working together are gradually being accepted more willingly by the US and other nations.
In a short article titled "Other ways than by war," Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "The characters and lives of men determine the peace, prosperity, and life of nations" ("The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," p. 277). Each individual's character and life are shaped by what he or she values. Those who embrace envy, suspicion, hatred, resentment, and lack of respect for others would divide humanity into haves and have-nots, into ethnic or religious rivals. This is what might be called the "fog of 9/11" - the motivation that leads to war, bloodshed, and terrorist attacks.
Clarity on this point - that true motivation unites and heals, instead of destroys and kills - is the light that outshined the fog on September 11, 2001. It was seen in the heroic efforts made by fire-fighters, police, medical, and other emergency personnel to save lives, even through risking and in some cases losing their own.
As more people adopt this selflessness, that light will shine more brightly than any other influence. It's able to do this because its source is God, divine Love. Under Love's guidance, progress among the nations becomes inevitable, despite rough patches along the way.
Jane Lampman, staff writer in the same paper states below how the 9/11 tragedy transformed the worldview of many Americans.
"Courtney Cowart barely escaped the collapsing World Trade towers in a terrifying flight from an adjacent building. But she returned days later to the edge of ground zero to organize a ministry in St. Paul's Chapel, where recovery workers came to sleep and find succour over eight agonizing months.
She calls that moment on the street - when she thought she'd be buried alive - the defining moment of her life.
"There's this gut-level coming to terms with yourself - how well and truly did I live my life?" Dr. Cowart recalls. "That experience, followed by the way people served one another in the chapel - how life-giving it was to pour yourself out for one another and how that keeps your heart open - is still very much what guides me today."
On this seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many Americans are rededicating themselves to the themes of unity, compassion, and service that so characterized their actions in the aftermath of the tragedy. In Washington, D.C., churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples are joining in the fourth 9/11 Unity Walk, which has been televised and shown in other countries. In Los Angeles, thousand of youths are meeting for a Peace Jam conference to launch a decade of service projects.
Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain - at the urging of a coalition of families of 9/11 victims (MyGoodDeed.org) - have agreed to a campaign moratorium for the day, including a halt in advertising. The candidates will visit ground zero together and speak at a ServiceNation summit in New York, designed to expand America's commitment to national service. (See story below.)
But for some individuals, 9/11 represents much more than a tragedy calling for annual commemoration: It has reshaped their lives.
Rabbi Hirschfeld, bridge builder: Sept. 11 "changed everything" for Rabbi Brad Hirschfeld of New York.
"It forced me to reconnect with, re-examine, and take responsibility for the way in which radical religion, fanatic faith, absolute certainty had dominated my own life for certain years," he says. During his late teens, he had been involved with ultranationalist religious Zionists in Hebron in the Holy Land. Living within a "self-justifying system," he remembers viewing violent behaviour as redemptive.
Now president of the National Centre for Jewish Learning and Leadership in New York, Rabbi Hirschfeld says all religious people have to ask themselves the hard questions about how faith functions in the world. "The issue of 9/11 is not Islam; it's fanatic faith."
Since 9/11, "I've committed every waking moment of my life to these issues ... to the new and emerging roles religion has in the 21st century, and how to allow that to unfold without it becoming fanatical, hateful, or triumphalist."
That journey has taken him to remarkable places. At the invitation of American Muslims, for instance, he is beginning his third year as host of a program on Bridges TV, the American Muslim TV Network (on cable in several cities). On the "Building Bridges" show, Hirschfeld discusses everyday concerns and contentious issues with Christian and Muslim leaders.
"9/11 made me realize there was no way for me to do the work I was doing in the Jewish world without also making my connections and work with people of other faiths an equal priority," he says. He's written a guide: "You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism."
Arsalan Iftikhar, 'clash' dispeller: For Arsalan Iftikhar, Sept. 11 is indelibly marked as "the most important day of my life."
A second-year law student at Washington University in St. Louis the day the planes hit, the articulate young Muslim American realized immediately what was at stake.
"I knew that getting the message out was of paramount importance, and I drafted a condemnation of terrorism [op-ed] to send to every major newspaper in the country," he says. Several published it, and his role as a public spokesman on Islam was launched.
Upon graduation, the human rights lawyer joined the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington D.C., as its national legal director, and interacted with government agencies on hate crime incidents, as well as the USA Patriot Act and other law-enforcement initiatives.
His mission, he says, is to dispel the theory of a clash of civilizations in US and global venues and to play a part in "making a better world for all."
In March, Mr. Iftikhar participated in the BBC Doha Debates in Qatar, arguing that "Muslims are failing to do enough to combat extremism." (He and his partner won the debate.)
At home, he's seen peaks and valleys in American attitudes toward Islam. The whisper campaign against Sen. Barack Obama as being "some sort of a crypto-Muslim" shows how entrenched some negative attitudes are, he says.
Now a contributing editor for Islamica magazine and a commentator for National Public Radio, Iftikhar is marking the seventh anniversary by launching his own website, "The Muslim Guy," to help take the discourse away from extremists.
"I want people to know we are not only part and parcel of American society but at the forefront of trying to make it a better place," he adds.
Courtney Cowart, service visionary: Cowart, for her part, has become a grass-roots proponent of "service activism."